In Meetings, U.S. Presses Beijing on Rights/ENG

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/world/asia/state-department-critiques-chinas-human-rights-abuses.html
 
The State Department on Wednesday released its latest sober diagnosis of human rights abuses in China, along with some gentle encouragement to Beijing to do better. “Our message to the Chinese government is, you’ve made progress on the economic front,” Michael H. Posner, the assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, said at a briefing. “This is the moment to open up the space to allow people to dissent, to question government actions, and to do so without fear of retribution.”
 
Mr. Posner was reporting on the latest session of an annual human rights dialogue with China, which took place this week in Washington and included representatives from American and Chinese government agencies. During the meetings, he said, the State Department addressed China’s abuses of free expression on the Internet and in public, its persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, and its inhumane labor practices, among other human rights issues. For their part, Chinese officials raised concerns about the United States’ record on human rights, particularly in areas of discrimination and prison conditions. “The point that we made, which I feel very confident and proud to make, is that we have human rights issues in the United States, but we also have a very strong system to respond to them,” Mr. Posner said, citing access to legal representation for all citizens, a free press and a “robust” culture of political engagement.
 
The meetings took place about two months after the arrival in New York of Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese dissident who sought refuge at the American Embassy in Beijing, setting off frenzied negotiations with the Chinese, who finally allowed him to leave the country after he left the embassy to be treated at a Beijing hospital. Mr. Posner said the United States continued to push China to allow legal representation for members of Mr. Chen’s family, including his nephew, who has been arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter.  “A number of his lawyers who the family have reached out to have tried to meet with him, tried to represent him actively, and been denied access,” Mr. Posner said of Mr. Chen’s nephew. “We raise those concerns openly. We will continue to raise those concerns.”
 
Critics say that merely raising concerns with the Chinese government, as the United States does in this dialogue each year, is an exercise in diplomatic futility. The State Department insists that the discussions are one facet of a larger strategy.   Lorne W. Craner, who served in Mr. Posner’s job under President George W. Bush, said he decided to discontinue the annual meetings when he felt that China was no longer receptive to criticism from the United States government. The meetings were revived in 2008, but Mr. Craner said that China’s diminishing regard for the United States remained a fundamental problem undermining discussions of this nature. “I was there at a very different time,” he said. “I think it’s tougher now.”